Sustainable practices: The discipline of rest
written by Dustin Carlson
This Composing Earth blog is supported by New Music USA and featured on NewMusicBox.
An essential component of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music's Climate Commitment, Composing Earth is a commissioning program for composers who recognize that climate change — climate disruption — is a bona fide civilizational emergency.
Composing Earth asks for a two-year commitment from Composer Alumni of GLFCAM. In the first year, composers receive a study stipend to participate in a monthly discussion group with peers, Gabriela, and renowned scholar/communicator of climate science (and music lover) Dr. Rob Davies. These meetings provide an opportunity to review articles, books, documentaries, and online resources regarding the climate crisis, allowing the composer time to find their own personal stories which inspire their commissioned work in the second year. Along the way, "weekly musings" are sent out every Wednesday by a member of the cohort to the full group. Some of these musings, whether in the form of personal letters and other times developed into soulful essays, are featured in the series below.
I have been playing the guitar now for over 25 years. The pursuit has always been one of attempting to unite my soul’s expression with the physical act of touching an instrument, in between my soul and the guitar exist the two realms of my mind and my body. Cultivating a musical mind has meant ear training, learning theory, learning the sounds of various musical traditions, histories. What is a downbeat? What is a swing feel? What does it mean to bounce? What does it mean to resolve on the 10th beat of a 12 beat cycle? Harmony, counterpoint, subdividing rhythms, study and endless study. The practice of touching an instrument, endless hours sitting with the guitar, playing notes that sustain, playing notes that move quickly, stretching fingers to play the cool chords, making my thumb play in 5 while my index middle and ring fingers play in 4, or any other polyrhythms; micro coordination, how to make a rasgeo of sextuplets sound like a thick wave of sound crashing into the 3rd pulse of a solea. This stuff takes time and many many repetitions, intense focus that overrides the bodies stubborn habits. Intense focus that can result in wear on the hands, which are attached to the wrists arms elbows .shoulders back and hips. My hands and myself have known overwork and overuse.
Over the years I have had many bouts with injury, tendonitis, tendonosis, burn out, soreness. Through this I have learned many ways to maintain the mind-body; dance, yoga, weightlifting, physical therapy, psychoanalysis, meditation etc. Recently I had a week with many gigs rehearsals and opportunities to perform music with people who have more experience than me. As a result I came to a day where I had to force myself to do nothing because I had been working too hard. Whenever these moments happen I experience what I recognize as an inevitable embodiment of a mind that does not want to rest. A mental state where pursuit, ambition, perfection, improvement etc. become a relentless obsession. The body is an amazing mirror of the mind, and though I was pursuing my vitality through my art, my flesh was becoming slow and tired and clumsy (which obviously one can’t play an instrument in a delicate and soul touching way with clumsy flesh).
As a musician I feel that I have been cultured to believe in hard work, achievement, etc. "Become an excellent musician so that you can receive attention, money, respect, or even more dire so that you can survive, make a living, not have to work a side hustle that (potentially) crushes your soul". The artistic purpose of "personal-achievement" seems divisive and destructive to me. Lately I have been reflecting a lot on how my own performance and creation practice can be less interested in achievement or personal gain; accolades etc. and more interested in being a catalyst for connection and gathering. The myth of progress is not one that serves me well.
So I have been pondering questions related to my musical practice:
Can the music draw people and inspire them to engage with their soul response? Can the performance create a space where the people share those responses with each other? Can the press coverage be about community more than it is about virtuosity or mastery of craft? Can the compositions lean towards playability? Can I nurture my performers’ strengths instead of demanding them to overcome weaknesses or transcend the limits of their technique or instrument? Can my craft be so solid that is can just serve expression? Can I leave the myths of “cutting edge” “technical mastery” “virtuosity” “eliteness” alone and pursue concepts that create space for listening, a shared sense of time, sensation?
I’ve been interested in the concepts of intention and transmission. What is the intention behind my practice, compositions, performances. Why am I starting this band, writing for this ensemble? What am I offering these performers and listeners? What am I saying to this interviewer? What am I telling people about the work and its intent? How can I set myself and collaborators up to transmit something that draws people into their own creativity, and that draws them towards each other?
Recently I began study with a guitarist names Nino de Pura. What I encountered in my studies with this master of guitar technique is that there is a playful way to deepen one’s technique. Studies can be explorations of a physical (musical) gesture, a fascination with a concept that is eluding the composer or the player/practitioner. He has an incredible technique that delivers intense musical sensation, explosive, emotive, very powerful. But his manner of teaching is very relaxed, demonstrative, fun, and his physicality when playing these incredible passages is totally relaxed. Of course, while studying with him in Sevilla Spain I have often felt that I need another lifetime to pursue this craft, that I am attempting to learn something that will continue to elude me beyond the years I have left. But the spirit of enjoyment and exploration is something I can practice immediately and for the remainder of my time creating music.
Dustin Carlson is a Brooklyn based guitarist composer and improvisor. His work touches the realms of jazz, chamber music, rock, noise, flamenco, and performance art. He has performed throughout the USA, Europe, Mexico and Canada. His band, Air Ceremony, featuring Matt Mitchel, Kate Gentile, Nathaniel Morgan, Eric Trudel, Danny Gouker and Adam Hopkins. released their debut record on Out of Your Head Records in November 2018.
His collaboration with Isabel Umali, a recording and dance piece entitled Shakes/the Noise of Wings was performed at the FICDMX dance festival in Mexico City in August 2018 and Abrons Art Center in NYC in 2017. F$F, his is long standing collaboration with trumpet player Brad Henkel released Forgotten Cities in June 2018, the music for that record was created while he was artist in residence at the Opekta Ateliers in Cologne Germany 2015. He has a solo record entitled Shakes/The Noise of Wings (VSR007 2016).
His collaborative projects include F$F (duo with Brad Henkel) and Secret People (trio with Kate Gentile and Nathaniel Morgan). He is the guitarist in the Webber/Morris Big Band which releases their debut on Greenleaf Records this year. He also plays guitar in Horse Torso, and accompanies Flamenco singer Julia Patinella playing music from Spain and Latin America.